70 THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART 



entire upper story of the main building, as well as the central 

 main towers on both the north and south sides. Fortunately 

 the floor between the two stories was fire proof, which prevented 

 the extension of the fire to the lower main hall and the two 

 wings. The contents of the upper gallery were almost entirely 

 destroyed. These, as before explained, consisted mainly of the 

 Indian paintings by J. M, Stanley, Charles B. King and others, 

 probably other paintings, and the marble copy of the Dying 

 Gladiator. 



The period subsequent to the fire of 1865 



In 1866, the year after the fire, the library of the Smithsonian 

 Institution was, by authority of Congress, placed in the custody 

 of the Library of Congress, and the Marsh collection of prints 

 and art books was sent with it, as a temporary deposit. A simi- 

 lar disposition was subsequently made of other parts of the art 

 collection in connection with the Gallery of Art which bears the 

 name of its generous founder, Mr. William W. Corcoran, and of 

 which Secretary Henry and later Secretary Baird were members 

 of the board of trustees. The original building at the corner of 

 Pennsylvania Avenue and Seventeenth Street, begun just be- 

 fore the civil war, but occupied by the Government until 1869, 

 was not put in final condition for its intended purpose and 

 opened to the pubUc until the beginning of 1874. Cooperation 

 with the Gallery had been anticipated by Secretary Henry, and 

 in 1873 the Board of Regents of the Institution, after a conference 

 with Mr. Corcoran, authorized the loan of such objects as were 

 desired, subject to recall at any time. They also proffered the 

 aid of the Institution, through its extensive foreign correspond- 

 ents and agencies, in collecting valuable works of art abroad. 

 The deposits were made principally in 1874 and 1879 and, as 

 enumerated in the Smithsonian reports at that time, comprised 

 the following works : 



Portraits in oil. — Guizot, President Tyler, and Senator William 

 C. Preston, by George P. A. Healy; George Washington, by 

 Charles Willson Peale; Prof. Joseph Henry, by Thomas Le 

 Clear. Engravings. — L-ioness and young, and two of deer, by 

 J. F. Ridinger; Silenus, by Bolsevert; Hercules, by Rottsseler; 

 a Centaur instructing Achilles, by Bervic, after Regnault; an 



